Another project we’ve overlooked until now; Uptown is under construction behind the Biltmore Hotel. Sorry, the Howard Johnson Plaza Hotel. Really, if you were stopped and asked where that was, would you have a clue? The Biltmore – no problem. The design, by Linda Baker Architects, is somewhat different from the other Mount Pleasant midrise projects, with more of a horizontal emphasis (at least in the render).

As with several other projects in the city and elsewhere (like a couple of towers in Surrey) the project was rescued by Concord Pacific from a developer who got into financial difficulties – in this case the Eden Group. Concord picked up the scheme, and now four years after the original approval the building is finally under construction. The additional complication for the builders is that they have to add an extra set of underground parking stalls for the hotel, as the site used to be the hotel parking lot. Which begs a question – if the hotel can operate for the two years of construction without any parking, did it really need to be completely replaced?